Meet the Waltons
by David Safier A labor economist at UC Berkeley came up with this stat. Six of the children of Sam and James “Bud” Walton, the founders of Wal-Mart, have a combined wealth equal to the entire bottom 30% of the U.S. economy. Their combined wealth "was $69.7 billion in 2007," the year they equaled the … Read more
Video from Nov. 30 protest of the ALEC Summit in Phoenix
by David Safier I saw this video on Three Sonorans. It was put together by Dennis Gilman for The People's Media. The scene is the November 30 protest in Phoenix on the first day of the ALEC Summit. You'll see pepper spraying of protesters and some gratuitous shoving and stepping on protesters by police. The … Read more
BREAKING: SCOTUS grants cert on S.B. 1070
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The U.S. Supreme Court has issued its list of orders this morning and had granted certiorari for the petition for review in Arizona v. United States, in which the state has asked the Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision blocking enforcement of four provisions of S.B. 1070, its controversial immigration law. The … Read more
The Fire Next Time: The Euro Financial Crisis – A New Union With No Guarantee of Sovereign Debt
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Last week, exactly 20 years to the day after European leaders signed the treaty that led to the creation of the European Union and the euro currency, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany persuaded every current member of the union except Britain to endorse a new agreement calling for tighter regional oversight of … Read more
“A Nation’s Education Left Behind”
by David Safier Educator Diane Ravitch, a harsh critic of the standardized testing and charters who used to be an advocate (her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, is a comprehensive analysis of the problems with the new "education reform" movement), published an article Sunday, A Nation's Education Left Behind. … Read more
Sign petition to remove Arpaio from office
by David Safier A petition, Remove Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Office, currently has 2,108 signatures, with a goal of 3,000. Here is the text of the petition: Sheriff Arpaio has failed to fulfill his obligations as Sheriff of Maricopa County. We call upon the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene and hold Sheriff Joe accountable … Read more
Federal preemption and S.B. 1070
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court considered at their private Conference Arizona v. United States, the high-profile dispute over Arizona’s recent sweeping immigration statute S.B. 1070. The Court could announce as early as Monday whether it will review the case. The political issue in Arizona’s appeal is how much leeway states have to … Read more
